Formation Tactics. The footsoldier has advantage on saving throws against being charmed, frightened, grappled, or restrained while it is within 5 feet of at least one ally.
Multiattack. The footsoldier makes makes two melee attacks.
Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 5 (1d6 + 2) piercing damage.
Halberd. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d10 + 2) slashing damage.
Rake. Using the halberd's hook, a footsoldier can make a special shoving attack (+2 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage). On a hit, the target is knocked prone if it is a Medium or smaller creature.
Cull. When using a halberd, the footsoldier can make one melee attack when an ally knocks a creature within 10 ft. prone.
Interception. When a creature the footsoldier can see hits a target, other than themself, within 5 ft. of themself with an attack, they can use their reaction to reduce the damage the target takes by 1d10+2 (to a minimum of 0 damage). They must be wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon to use this reaction.
Description
A lonesome footsoldiers or two of the Chelverist legion pose no great threat. However, when any greater number of them are allowed to assume their phalanx-like position, they can quickly take down melee attackers, or provide an impenetrable shield for anyone standing behind them.
In Dungeons & Dragons, the only incentive to use a halberd over a greatsword or maul is its reach – 10ft. compared to 5ft. – which few players value highly enough to make up for the halberd's poorer damage die – 1d10 to the greatsword's and maul's 2d6. However, from the 14th all the way through the 17th century, the halberd grew to become a favoured weapon for many armies and a staple in "pike and shot" warfare until the gradual advances in gunpowder technology had made mêlée infantry largely obsolete. This means that there definitely must be some merit to the halberd, being the final evolution of the melee weapon ubiquitously used in actual warfare (well, apart from the bayonet, which requires a rifle so that hardly counts), over weapons such as the greatsword and maul.
The way this unit, the Chelverist Footsoldier, uses the halberd attests to how it was successful: through use in a tactical formation. When two lines of halberdiers and pikemen would clash, what ensued was either a rather gruesome "push of pike" – where the backlines on both sides pushed the vanguards into each other, causing massive casualties – or a more reserved formation where both sides would engage around the maximum reach of their weapons. In this situation, the halberdier excelled. The halberd's axe-head combines features of a pike and glaive with a hook, making it a applicable for fighting other pikes one on one, fending off cavalry, and engaging in the massive push of pike. Its hook is particularly interesting. In the open field it could be used to drag horsemen off their mounts, but where it truly shone was in the mêlée. With a quick, raking motion, a halberdier could hook an enemy forward, toppling them face first to the ground where he and his neighbouring pikemen could quickly land a decisive blow.
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